December 29th marks the date on the Orthodox calendar (New) for the remembrance of the infant boys murdered by King Herod in Bethlehem. The accounts say there were 14,000, though I doubt there were 14,000 people in the whole town. Whatever the true number – 140 or 14,000 – the calculated murder of children made such a deep impression on the Gospel writer of Matthew, as well as the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus, that it is remembered as a horrific event even two thousand years later.

If you are too shocked by this incident and blame it on the Romans’ less advanced culture and obviously flawed morals, remember the one million babies who die in this country each year from abortion. These aren’t babies murdered at the hands of a political despot, but at the request of their own mothers and accommodated by a greed-driven abortion industry and the rabid ideals of pro-abortion supporters. Who will write stories about the millions of murdered innocents of the 21st century?

Why is it that for all the criticism, demeaning labels and hostility heaped upon people who speak for traditional values, the sanctity of life and the place of faith in modern society, they can still remain so adamant about their positions and stand like sentinels we all look towards? Is it because they’re martyrs? Self-righteous zealots who like the attention or flagrant masochists who are only satisfied with a good beating? Or might they just be men and women who have come through to the other side of a life lived a little loose and free and found there’s meaning beyond self-gratification and wilful denial?

In Hollywood this kind of hedonism isn’t looked down on, rather, it’s the salt that gives your life, your on-screen persona, some marketable character and progressive worldliness. Celebrity transcends the ignorant and provincial masses (hint, hint – they’re usually termed ‘rednecks’, ‘hicks’, ‘religious nuts’, ‘conservatives’, ‘red staters’, ‘bigots’). But hey, who would give a flip about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears if they were actually normal? Train wrecks are always more interesting. Tom Cruise repents and becomes a good Catholic boy? Boring (and frankly my bets are on a curly-tailed porcine stunt flying team before that happens). Honestly, it’s infuriating that we’ve not only allowed, but cheered on our own moral and cultural suicide by giving the entertainment industry our money-backed stamp of approval.

But before you think Hollywood has become an entirely spiritual wasteland of self-indulgent phoniness, I direct your attention to Gary Graham who is a contributing writer at Big Hollywood – gasp – a conservative minded entertainment website. Gary has posted a painfully honest, brilliant, in-your-face piece about the personal cost of abortion, his redemption, and blunt feelings about what abortion actually is – it’s not a personal choice, it’s not a guaranteed right, it’s not a medical procedure that takes care of some unwanted tissue – it’s the murder of a living human being, plain and simple.

I’m going to say it. I’m going to say what millions know in the front of their brains, and many, many more millions know in the depths of their hearts…but won’t allow themselves to think it, much less feel it. And believe me, I know I’ll be hated for saying it, I’ll be hated by people who don’t know me, have never worked with me, have never golfed with me, had a drink with me, shot the shit with me. They’ve never met me, don’t want to meet me…but they will hate me. I’m going to say it anyway: Abortion is murder.

To many, many fans Gary Graham is listed among the ranks of sci-fi royalty. He starred in the Alien Nation TV series and movies of the 90’s; he was the perfect Vulcan ambassador Soval in Star Trek Enterprise, and he’s got a long list of other TV appearances and movie roles that have kept him active in the entertainment business for years. But Gary is now choosing to reveal his dark secrets to millions of readers and take on the new role of Hollywood pariah or pro-life hero. I would have loved to discuss all things Trek or sci-fi with Gary Graham before he wrote this article. Now I’d only like a few minutes to talk with him about his religious awakening and his totally committed pro life position.

It’s sad that anyone has to go through this kind of life experience before they see the truth. It’s a very heavy burden to carry with you the rest of your life, but Gary Graham isn’t burying it under silence and regret. If anything, he’s proving there are people in Hollywood willing to take unpopular positions and stand up for what’s right. And then maybe other celebrities will gain the courage to speak up, to give evil its real name. I feel certain the same people who shed tears of righteous indignation for baby seals and dolphins can find a few for aborted babies. Live long and prosper Mr. Graham.

Today the Orthodox Church honors the Holy Innocents. Please remember the 14,000 baby and toddler boys killed by order of King Herod 2000 years ago, and the thousands of children that will die this very day from the hands of abortionists. And if you must argue the difference between living babies and ‘fetuses’, than you won’t believe the unborn have no less humanity and value than the children that died by the sword in their mothers’ arms.

Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York, writes an eloquent and very simple appeal against the absolute wrongness of abortion. It is nothing but a nightmare to think that a doctor could continue to murder children, not embryos or fetuses, but children, week in and week out, and go home and look at his or her own children with the same eyes. There is something truly demonic at work in the hearts of everyone involved in the practice of abortion. As Cardinal Egan points out,

If you can convince yourself that these beings are something other than living and innocent human beings, something, for example, such as “mere clusters of tissues,” you have a problem far more basic than merely not appreciating the wrongness of abortion. And that problem is—forgive me—self-deceit in a most extreme form.

Satan is a master of deceit and the struggles of our daily spiritual lives are efforts to overcome these illusions. But if you believe we commit our sins simply because ‘the devil made you do it’ is to take the easy way out. He deceives, he fosters self-deceit and gives us the balm of justification for any of our actions, but ultimately, we exercise our free will to sin. If the devil took a holiday, I don’t believe for one minute that abortion clinics would lose any business. For this reason, none of us can look away. And if you want any more clear indication of what Cardinal Egan thinks about abortion and politics, see what kind of message he tried to get through to Nancy Pelosi:

“We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.“

I’ll keep you posted should there be any breaking weather reports on the falling temperature in Hell. Or with sufficient self-deceit, you can just throw another log on the fire and call it global cooling.

My 8 year old expressed his preference for President very clearly yesterday when he brought home the social studies project below. He’s got his mind made up, but I suspect he thinks Sen. Obama is just way cooler than some old guy (and maybe ’cause he’s been listening to my husband bash “scumbag Republicans”). It was a good opportunity to remind him there is still one issue Orthodox Christians cannot and never will agree with Obama about – abortion.

A tough topic to discuss with a child, but I’ve tried to teach him in a basic way what elective abortion is, why it’s wrong and what the Orthodox Church believes and teaches – simply that unborn babies are children of God from the moment of conception and we don’t kill God’s children. He tried to give me some “but”, “but” arguments about how Sen. Obama isn’t going to actually be doing that to anyone, what ever that means in an 8 year old’s point of view (which actually sounds a lot like the reasoning some democrats use too). I had to leave it at “abortion, is murder and it’s wrong for someone, even Sen. Obama, to believe it’s ok”.

Abortion is the big stumbling block for conservative, pro-life Democrats. Whether Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, Protestants or any pro-life faith group, every four years we’re left in this quandary about our faith, values, and what it means to vote in an election that doesn’t give us any options. Do you vote for the lesser of two evils? Do you vote for what is to your mind a candidate who is an out-of-touch war monger but is pro-life? Or do you vote for the candidate who seems to be saying some of the things that resonate with you except for this one big issue that he may or may not really get a chance to mess with much before his term(s) is up? In the case of my home state, Texas, I don’t think whichever candidate I vote for is going to make any difference to the state outcome. Do I vote then on a single issue for a candidate I doubt I’d support on anything else he’d ever do during his entire presidency?